No surprise, she took the first part of his announcement really well.
“You’re going to be a father?” Joy lit up Gram’s aged features as she rose from her floral sofa to give him a hug.
He stood to return the embrace and she tugged him over to join her on the sofa.
“Tell me everything. I’d almost given up hope of you finding a nice young woman to change your mind from the lonely future you had planned for yourself.”
Now came the hard part.
“You know her actually. The mother is Savannah Jones.”
“I had a feeling about her.” Gram clapped her hands. “Such a sweet child but with a lively spirit.”
Yeah, that was Savannah. “Hardly a child or we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“Situation?” A stern expression replaced the excitement on her face. “Derrick Francis Sullivan, you are going to marry this girl, aren’t you?”
He cringed at the use of his full name, not only because he hated it, but because she only used it in moments of extreme upset. Not that he didn’t agree with her. Savannah’s refusal to marry him still stung.
“I placed that woman in your care,” she stated with regal dignity. “I cannot believe you’d take advantage of her, get her with child and not marry her. Explain yourself.”
“Of course I asked her to marry me. She turned me down.”
“Hmm.” Gram gave him her I-know-you look. “Are you sure you asked her and it wasn’t just a statement of intent?”
Feeling his cheeks heat guiltily, he scowled. “What difference does it make? I’m willing to marry her—isn’t that enough?”
“Well, with that kind of enthusiasm I don’t know how the girl could turn you down.”
“We have a child to consider. We don’t get to just think of ourselves.”
She inclined her curly gray head. “What reason did she give for turning you down?”
“She said she wants to marry for love, and that she doesn’t want a husband who’s a workaholic like her dad.”
“Ah.” Gram nodded while compassion came into the blue eyes she’d passed on to her grandsons. “I don’t know the whole history there, but Savannah practically raised her younger brother and sister. And she was barely more than a child herself.”
“He skipped out on them emotionally after her mom was diagnosed with cancer. Sank into his work and never really came back out.”
Gram tsked. “It must have been very hard on her.”
“Right. She should marry me so I can make it easier for her this time.”
“I don’t know.” Gram settled back in her corner of the sofa and eyed him seriously. “Maybe she’s right.”
Outraged, he shot to his feet. “How can you say that? I’m nothing like her father.”
“Savannah is your assistant, Rick,” Gram reminded him. “I think she knows your work habits. Which were fine when you didn’t intend to marry, as you often said you wouldn’t. But those habits are hard to break.”
“Taking care of the company is me providing for my family.”
“A woman needs more than a paycheck in a partner,” she pointed out.
“Of course I know that.” He paced the floral area rug he’d crawled on as a baby. “I can cut back on my hours.”
“It’ll take more than a change in schedule.” His grandmother folded her hands in her lap. “It’ll take a change in mind-set. I’ve tried to talk to you about your father before, but you weren’t willing to listen.”
No, he didn’t want to hear. What was the point of hearing the details of failure?
“He ran the company into the ground,” he stated grimly. “That’s all I need to know.”
“Life is rarely so simple. You should have learned that by now. You think of your father as weak because he chose to spend his time with his family over the business.”
“He had a duty to provide for us. Dad was your son. I understand you don’t want to hear anything bad about him, but what would we have done if the company had gone bankrupt?”
“It wouldn’t have gotten to that point.” Gram patted the sofa beside her. “Come sit with me. Let me tell you how it was.”
“Gram—”
“Sit!”
Rick sat and hung his hands between his knees. He’d listen, but it wasn’t going to change anything.
“Did you know your mother once left your father?” she asked.
“What?” Startled, he turned his head and nailed his grandmother with a glare. “No way.”
“Oh, she did.” Gram nodded emphatically. “Business was never in your father’s heart. He preferred archaeology. He actually met your mother on a dig. They settled down when you kids started to come along, though they stole away to a dig every year or so. But they went through a bad patch after you and Rett were born. Your grandfather passed away that year and your dad stepped up to run the store. You two were a lot to handle, but your dad had to put in a lot of time to run the business.”
Rick shook his head. He’d never heard any of this.
Gram placed a hand on his thigh. “Just listen. When your mom got pregnant with Ford she told your father he needed to help out more at home or she was leaving. He promised he would, and I believe he had good intentions.”
Rick’s grandmother stopped to reach for a tissue from the box on the coffee table. Her hand trembled, and he realized how hard this was for her.
“Gram,” he said painfully.
“I’m fine.” She waved off his concern. “And you need to hear this.” She drew in a steadying breath. “Your dad didn’t make enough of a change, so your mom packed you kids up and went home to her parents. It killed your dad to be without his family. Eventually he convinced her he’d change. And he did. It took a while for the toll to show at the store, and when it did, he hired a manager. But by then we were in the middle of a recession, and then shortly afterward your parents were gone. It was my decision to let the manager go and run the store myself, which probably wasn’t fair to you boys.”
“Stop,” he demanded, unwilling to listen to her speak ill of herself when he remembered how hard she’d worked to hold home and store together. “You did the best you could.”
Her blue eyes teared up as she nodded. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. We can only ever do our best. Sometimes it pays off. Sometimes you have to adjust and try again. Your father changed because he had a lot to lose. Promising to change and not really making an effort hurts everyone involved. So be careful what you promise.”
CHAPTER TEN
TWO MONTHS LATER Rick sat in a doctor’s office with Savannah and watched the screen as the doctor moved a ball in jelly across Savannah’s abdomen.
“See, here’s the baby’s head and the feet. And here—” the doctor, a white-haired man with wire-rimmed glasses, pointed at a blip on the screen “—you can see the heart beat.”
Rick squinted at the spot indicated and then he saw it, the pulsing beat of his child’s heart. And yes, there was the head, and the arms and legs and the tiny feet.
“Rick, do you see?” Savannah fumbled for his hand.
“Yeah.” Awe filled him to overflowing. Not taking his eyes from the small heartbeat, he wrapped his fingers around hers and squeezed. “Our baby. It’s beautiful.”
In an instant his world changed beyond anything he’d ever known. The sense of duty and responsibility increased a hundredfold, but added to that was an emotion so profound it filled his soul.
This was a love like nothing he’d ever known.
“No, not an it anymore.” Savannah stared at the screen, turning her head this way and that to try and work out what she was seeing. “Dr. Wilcox, are we having a boy or a girl?”
Rick found himself holding his breath. Not that it mattered. Boy or girl, he just hoped for a healthy baby, knew Savannah felt the same.
“You are having a baby boy.”
A son. For the first time ever he had an inkling of what his father must have felt. Was it possible to fe
el six times this much love? Rick couldn’t imagine it.
“Ouch. Rick!” Savannah exclaimed.
He blinked at her and then looked down to where he felt a yanking on his hand to find he was crushing her fingers in his.
“Oh, sorry.” He immediately loosened his grip.
She grinned at him. “Pretty intense, huh, Daddy?”
“It’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Me, too.” The look in her green eyes softened and when she turned back to the monitor and tears welled, he understood exactly how she felt.
He leaned down to kiss her just behind her left ear.
She smiled and turned her hand in his to thread their fingers together.
“Marry me,” he whispered. “Let’s be a family.”
She went totally still. When she came to life again she flicked him an unreadable look from the corner of her eye. A moment later she was focused on the screen again, even white teeth torturing her plump bottom lip.
But she just shook her head silently.
After the appointment Savannah sat at a traffic light tapping the steering wheel with nails painted in Pixie Dust Pink waiting for Claudia to answer her cell. Savannah’s mind churned with thoughts of the doctor’s appointment she’d just left. Of the second marriage proposal from Rick she’d turned down.
That did not get easier with practice.
“Hello.” Claudia finally picked up.
“It’s a boy,” Savannah announced to the hands-free kit attached to the dash. She grinned and patted her bulge, a boy.
“A nephew! Woohoo!” Claudia whooped. “I knew it. I told Daniel you were having a boy. Have you told Rick?”
“I didn’t have to. He was there. And yes, he’s thrilled.” Not that he’d made a big show of it, but she knew he was pleased.
Though, like her, he’d be happy whatever the gender as long as the baby was healthy. She always breathed easier after hearing the doctor say everything looked good.
“He showed up at your appointment again?”
“He wanted to drive me, but I have a meeting back at the school so I insisted on driving myself.”
The fact Rick had been at all her appointments still surprised her. She saw almost as much of him now as she had when she’d worked for him. Especially during those last couple of months when he’d been avoiding her.
Who knew that by quitting she’d be freeing him to pursue her? On the days she didn’t have her college classes, he’d stop by her home bringing dinner with him or charming—okay, bullying—her to go out with him. A few times she hadn’t felt like going out, so she’d cooked.
She could tell he liked those times best, though he never expected it. And she realized that for all his bluster about staying single he was as much a family man at heart as any of his brothers.
No question she’d have more distance and privacy if she’d continued to work for him.
“Hey, I wanted to give you the news. Now I need to call and tell Daniel you were right. I’ll see you on Saturday.”
The light turned green, and Savannah pulled forward. The squeal of brakes gave her little warning. She looked up, saw an SUV barreling for her. Sheer instinct had her slamming both feet down on the brakes.
She screamed.
Claudia frantically called out her name.
And then everything went black.
Savannah lay in the hospital bed cradling the bulge that was her baby and fighting back tears. She was bleeding and the doctors were worried.
She was terrified. And alone.
She remembered talking to Claudia. Everything after the call blurred in a kaleidoscope of scary, painful events. The SUV had run a red light and hit the front of her sedan broadside. The police had told her if she hadn’t stood on her brakes it would have hit her right in the driver’s-side door.
She could be dead right now.
Gulping back a sob she rubbed her belly. Instead her baby might die.
“Sir, you can’t go in there. You need to check in with admissions. Sir!”
A large, bronzed hand pushed the curtain aside and suddenly Rick was there. In the next instant he held her in his arms. He didn’t lift her but came down to her. She wrapped her arms around him, hung on tight and let the tears flow.
“I’m here, Savannah,” he crooned against her ear.
“Everything is going to be fine.”
Oh, he lied. But it was exactly what she needed to hear.
“The baby,” she choked out.
“Our boy is strong,” he assured her. “He’ll make it through this. How are you? Are you hurt? They wouldn’t tell me anything.”
“Shook up, a little bruised. The air bag saved me.
But it was like a punch to the gut, and the baby…”
She buried her face in his chest. “I’m bleeding. I’m so sorry.”
“Stop. It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”
He repeated it again and again until she almost believed it.
He stayed with her and eventually she calmed enough to tell him what she knew. A nurse came along to say the doctor had ordered an ultrasound and they’d be moving her in a few minutes.
Through the next hours she clung to Rick’s hand. He stood by her side, his presence lending her strength, his touch giving her hope, especially when the doctors said they wanted to keep her and the baby under observation overnight and reevaluate the situation in the morning.
“Placental abruption is the separation of the placenta from the uterine lining,” Doctor Wilcox stated the next afternoon. “I believe you have a partial separation caused by the trauma to the abdomen.”
“That sounds serious.” Heart beating frantically, Savannah squeezed Rick’s hand.
“It is,” the doctor confirmed. “The placenta is part of your baby’s life-support system. When the placenta separates from your uterine lining, it can interrupt the transportation of oxygen and nutrients to your baby.”
“Rick.”
He circled her hand with both of his and held on tight. “Are you saying she’s going to lose the baby?” he asked.
“She hasn’t yet—that’s a good sign. Plus his heartbeat is strong, which is an excellent indication of his chances. But you have to be cautious. I’m going to order complete bed rest for the next month and then we’ll see. I want to monitor the baby carefully, at least once a week.”
He went on to outline the limitations of bed rest and to caution her against overdoing things. She wondered how she was going to manage, especially when he mentioned she should have someone with her day and night.
A few minutes later Rett arrived and the doctor took his leave. Savannah tried to hold it together as family came and went through the evening, as the prognosis was repeated again and again.
Even her dad came by, which touched Savannah, but she was so emotionally overwrought she didn’t know how to act. Rick saw the toll it was all taking on her and chased everyone on their way.
And then he held her while she cried herself to sleep.
“Are you ready to marry me now?” Rick asked from where he stood by the window.
Head bowed, she frowned down at the serviceable blue blanket covering her to the waist. Stupid, rough, ugly blanket.
“You’re seriously taking advantage of a pregnant woman when she’s down?” she exclaimed.
“I’ll do whatever it takes.” He crossed his arms over his chest, the gesture a wordless statement of his determination. “It’s the practical solution to the situation.”
Flicking him an irritated glance she said, “You might want to try something more romantic next time.”
“Will that work?” Speculation lit up his eyes.
“No, but it’ll mix it up for me.”
Suddenly he was next to the bed, and she was framed by the magnificent columns of his muscular arms. And then his mouth was on hers, hard, hot, urgent, a demand and a declaration. When he lifted his head, resolve burned in his gorgeous blue eyes.
“Be warned. I’m not going to stop asking until I get the answer I want.”
Savannah licked her lips as she stared up into all that heated intensity. Okay, what he lacked in romance, he definitely made up for in tenacity.
“You’re not supposed to rile the sick lady. Just because I’ve been ordered to undergo bed rest doesn’t mean I get to do anything interesting while I’m there.” Turning sullen again, she plucked at the ugly blanket. “Over four months in bed. I’m going to go nuts.”
Rick kissed her again, this time slow and sweet. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Take it one day at a time. Plus I know you. You’ll find a way to fill the time.”
“That’ll be hard to do from a hospital room.” The doctor had ordered complete bed rest for the first month with a possible move to moderate bed rest for the rest of her term, depending on how the baby was doing at the end of the first month.
The problem was complete bed rest meant no cooking, no chores, no moving around her apartment. If she didn’t have someone to help her at home, they wanted to put her in a long-term facility. The thought of that made her want to cry.
But she wasn’t willing to marry Rick just to keep from being bored. And she told him so.
“I have a proposition,” he said, dropping into his customary chair beside the bed. “Come live with me. I talked to my housekeeper last night. She’s willing to extend her hours and work from eight to four. That means you’ll only be alone a couple of hours a day.”
“Really?” It sounded perfect. Except it probably came with a ring attached. “Even though I’m not going to marry you?”
He lifted a dark brow. “My proposal stands. But, no, a marriage ceremony is not necessary for you to stay with me.”
She eyed him suspiciously. “What’s the catch?”
“You sleep with me.”
Oh, no, not a good idea. “The doctor said no sex.”
“Yeah, I was sitting here when he said it. This isn’t about that. I’m not going to do anything to hurt the baby.”
“Then why?” she asked.
“Because I won’t be able to sleep at night worrying about you.”
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